The Wolowitz Conclusion

Chapter six

Leonard moved quickly along the corridor hoping that Megan, specifically, wouldn't hear Penny. He knew she was angry, and who could blame her, he was angry too. In that exact moment when they had walked in on Howard and Hannah together Leonard's view of Howard completely changed and he wondered if they could ever come back from this. Up until about 10 mins ago Leonard had seen Howard as his rock. Sheldon's death had hit them all hard, and Leonard, specifically had taken a long time to get over it.

"what's wrong, Daddy?" Leonard's thoughts were broken by his daughter "what was uncle Howard doing in there?"

"I'm just a bit sad" Leonard smiled as best he could, "Mommy is too"

"is it about uncle Sheldon?" Megan asked him, this was a conversation that had taken place many times over the last few months "because he died?"

"yeah" Leonard answered her, only half lying "I'm sad he's not going to meet Kristian"

"me too" Megan smiled, running her hands softly across her brother's head using the stroller to steady her as she was unable to use her crutch "I wish uncle Sheldon hadn't died"

"me too, sweetheart, me too"

"what the fuck do you think you're doing?" penny raged at Howard, taking all her strength not to punch him like she had done all those years ago when he had tried to kiss her "you've got a lovely family at home, a lovely wife and you decide to fuck this, this, floozy?"

"he's not with his wife any more" Hannah corrected her to what she believed was true "they've split up"

"really?" Penny asked looking at them both "well this is the first I've heard of it"

"who even are you?" Hannah demanded, "are you jealous, did you want to be with him?"

"no I'm not jealous" Penny through her head backwards in dismay, this would have been funny if it wasn't so tragic "I'm Leonard's wife, and his wife's best friend"

"Penny, please…" Howard begged

"don't even ask me that" Penny was getting angrier and angrier by the moment, it had only been two weeks since Kristian had been born and she could feel the pressure of her anger pressing on her stitches "don't ask me to lie to my best friend, don't ask me to stand here and condone what you've done"

"I wasn't thinking" Howard pleaded, "it was a momentary weakness"

"every day for the last week?" Hannah was angry too now, but for different reasons, she grabbed her clothes and quickly slipped them on before heading for the door "I'm so sorry Mrs Hofstadter, he told me they had split up"

"just go" Penny told her "its not you I'm angry with"

"Penny…"

"and don't even think about blaming Sheldon's death" Penny was reading his mind "don't even…" Penny couldn't even finish her sentence before falling forward on to howards desk with the pain

"Penny, you're bleeding" Howard shouted at her "I'll get Leonard"

"hey, slow down" Lesley said as she nearly fell onto Howard "what's wrong"

"in there" Howard turned and tried to run backwards "Penny's bleeding, help her"

"okay" Lesley went into Howard's office and witnessed pandemonium, Penny was bent over the desk, thick, fresh, red blood soaking through her jeans and pooling on the floor, crying obviously in excruciating pain and a mixture of Howard and hannah's clothes balled up in the corner "what the hell happened?"

"Lesley, please" Penny cried through the pain "it's my stitches, I think they've burst"

"Penny?" Leonard saw her and ran over to where she was attempting to stand "what happened, Howard told me you were bleeding?"

"my stitches have burst" faintly in the background Penny could hear Kristian screaming, and her milk started to leak through her shirt "and now the baby needs feeding"

"I'm calling 911" Lesley told them needlessly as they could both see the phone in her hand "how old's the baby"

"two weeks" Leonard answered before giving her all of Penny's personal information "thank you Lesley"

The ambulance came as quickly as it could and loaded Penny, Kristian and Leonard inside before speeding off towards the hospital leaving Howard and Lesley with Megan, Elliot, Alice and the orders to call Amy to come and get the children. On the way to the hospital Penny was given pain killers and Leonard fed Kristian the bottle of formula that had been placed in the bag in case of such an emergency. Initially Kristian refused the bottle, wanting the closeness and feel of his Mommy's breast, until giving into his hunger and drinking the formula begrudgingly.

"I'm sorry Kristian" Penny sobbed as the morphine took effect and the pain subsided "I wanted to give you your milk"

"he's okay" Leonard smiled "how about you?"

"I feel dizzy" she slurred before slipping in and out of consciousness

"help" Leonard screamed "my wife…"

"okay" the paramedic took one look at Penny "George, she's lost consciousness, how long to go"

"two minutes" he answered "shall I radio in and tell them"

"please"

It didn't take long for Amy and Bernadette to get to the university, they were together having coffee anyway so they both got into their cars and drove to the hospital. When they turned up they found Howard, Lesley and Lesley's wife, Melanie playing cards with Megan and Elliot, and Alice fast asleep in Kristian's stroller.

"what happened?" Bernadette demanded from Howard "why did Penny's stitches burst"

"I don't know" Howard answered accidentally doing the finest impression of his mother "they came to see me and then Penny's stitches burst"

"what did you do?" Bernadette shot back with her own unconscious perfect impression "its normally caused by stressed"

"nothing" Howard answered, pleading with his eyes that Lesley wasn't going to tell them the sorry story she'd just heard "she just keeled over"

"Mommy was angry" Megan started, looking at Howard as he glared at her, silently shouting at her not to say anything else

"at what?" Amy asked her, hoping for a better answer than Howard had given

"Daddy" Megan lied, heeding the warning from Howard "Daddy made a joke and Mommy didn't like it"

"okay" Bernadette wasn't convinced but didn't want to push Megan any more, she had gone through a lot in the last few weeks "well, let's get you all home"

"Leonard gave me his car keys" Howard tried to change the subject "so we can get you all home"

Leonard sat in the relatives room with his head in his hands sobbing. He couldn't believe what had happened in the last few hours. They were all still trying to rebuild their lives after the unexpected, tragic death of Sheldon, now Howard had been cheating on Bernadette and Penny was in theatre. Leonard couldn't believe the amount of blood that had come out of Penny, if he hadn't have had to be strong for his children, he would have passed out, he knew it. He turned to look at his son, one of the nurses had very kindly arranged for a crib to be sent down from maternity so Leonard didn't have to hold him all the time,

"Mommy will be back soon" Leonard told him, hoping that he wasn't lying to his baby son "and she loves you very much."

At that moment in walked a very worried looking Stephanie, the same girl who had operated on Megan, and delivered Kristian only two weeks ago

"Leonard?" she called, touching his hand and bringing away from the trance he was in looking at his son "I have news"

"Please tell me its good" Leonard pleaded with her "please don't tell me Penny's dead"

"it was touch and go" Stephanie told him, truthfully "but she's going to be fine"

"oh that's a relief" Leonard felt the weight of the world come off of his shoulders "what happened"

"her stitches burst" Stephanie answered, matter of factly "it happens"

"she got upset just before" Leonard confessed "would that have caused it?"

"absolutely, yes" Stephanie answered "in fact, that makes a lot of sense"

"I'm going to kill Howard" Leonard hissed under his breath "did she really nearly die?"

"yes" Stephanie nodded "but we've given her a blood transfusion, and stitched her back up, she needs to be a bit more careful and rest more, but she'll be fine"

"not easy with four children" Leonard sighed and rolled his eyes "maybe I'll take some more time off"

"that's a good idea" Stephanie agreed "I can write the university a note if you want"

"yes please" Leonard felt even better "can we see her?"

"of course" Stephanie smiled "she'll be wanting to see you"

Leonard followed Stephanie into recovery, pushing Kristian in his maternity cot, he stirred a little, but stayed asleep, probably grateful for the movement. When they got to Penny's cubical he just stopped and looked at her, curled up on one side, tears flowing from her eyes, canular in her arm, she looked broken

"Penny" Leonard rubbed her arm to get her attention "there's someone here who wants to see you"

"Kristian" Penny couldn't manage any more before a fresh load of tears started falling down her face

"its such a relief to see you" Leonard admitted, trying not to break down himself "I thought I'd lost you"

"you don't get rid of me that easily" Penny smiled, paraphrasing the joke she had made with Megan when they were last in this position "have you heard from Amy about the kids"

"I have" Leonard smiled "they're fine, missing you"

"is Megan okay?" Penny sighed "she saw it all"

"I spoke to her" Leonard reassured her "she told me Bernadette was asking what happened so she said you were angry at me"

"I think I followed that" Penny smiled "so Bernadette doesn't know yet?"

"no"

"we have to tell her"

"we will" Leonard stood up, passing Kristian to his mother and giving her a kiss "but lets get you better first"

"its such a mess" Penny started crying again, partially from the relief of Kristian suckling on her breast "I don't know how Bernadette is going to get through this"